Ibn al-‘Awwām

Kitāb al-filāḥa

Abū Zakariyā Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-‘Awwām, better known as Ibn al-‘Awwām al-Ishbīlī, ‘the Sevillian’, wrote his magisterial Kitāb al-filāḥa, ‘Book of Agriculture’, probably towards the end of the 12th century (Ibn al-‘Awwām 1988, I, p. 17). Although he does not appear in any of the biographies, he is the only agronomist mentioned by the historian Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406) in his Muqaddima (Ibn Khaldūn 1967, p. 388), and is noted too by the early 15th century encyclopedist Al-Qalqashandī. Neither, however, gives any further biographical details (García Sánchez 1992, p. 991). Textual evidence in his treatise indicates that Ibn al-‘Awwām farmed and carried out successful agricultural experiments in the Aljarafe district to the west of Seville (as did his predecessors Abū’l-Khayr and Ibn Hajjāj), where he was probably an aristocratic landowner (García Sánchez 1992, p. 992). Since he is not mentioned in any other capacity or position it seems likely that he dedicated his life solely to agricultural pursuits, the only Andalusi agronomist to do so apart from Ibn Baṣṣāl. This is about all we know of the man. Yet his work is the most renowned of all the Andalusi agronomists because it was the first to be published and translated into a modern language, initially into Spanish by Banqueri in 1802, then into French by Clément-Mullet in 1864–67, and subsequently into Urdu in 1927. It was thus for a long time the only source of reference on medieval Andalusi agronomy. Moreover it is one of the few works of this genre that has come down to us more or less complete.

Ibn al-‘Awwām’s Kitāb al-filāḥa is, without doubt, the most comprehensive agricultural treatise in Arabic. He gathers all the knowledge of his time concerning agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry into a huge compendium of excerpts from all the previous agronomical traditions and treatises. From 112 named authors (Ibn al-‘Awwām, Banqueri 1802, I, pp. 61-2) he includes one thousand nine hundred direct and indirect citations – 615 or 32.5% from Byzantine sources, especially from Cassianus Bassus, 585 or 31% from Near Eastern sources, 85% of which are from Ibn Waḥshīya, and 690 citations or 36.5 % from earlier Andalusi agronomists (Glick 2005, pp. 12-13). To these he often adds his own observations and experiences, about which he says: “As for my own contribution, I put forward nothing that I have not first proved by experiment on repeated occasions” (Ibn al-‘Awwām, Clément-Mullet 1866, I, p. 9). He records, for example, his experiments in grafting the wild olive of the mountains with the domesticated olive of the plain, and his successful cultivation of saffron, under irrigation, in the mountains (Bolens 1981, p. 30).

Ibn al-‘Awwām’s treatise comprises 34 chapters dealing with all aspects of husbandry – it mentions 585 different plants, explains the cultivation of more than 50 fruit trees, and includes many valuable observations on soils, manures, grafting, and plant diseases (Sarton 1927-48, II, pp. 424-25). Ibn al-‘Awwām also includes an agricultural calendar, one of the few Andalusi agronomists to do so. The last section of his work is devoted to animal husbandry, with chapters on cattle, sheep, goats, camels, horses, mules and donkeys, geese, ducks, chickens, pigeons, peacocks and beekeeping. As well as being of great value and interest for the study of agricultural history, the Kitāb al-filāḥa has enabled scholars to reconstruct the original texts of some previous authors whose work has only survived in abridged or fragmented form. In addition, the profusion of references, even though sometimes entangled and difficult to unravel, provides the historian with a wealth of information on the transmission of knowledge. It also presents a unique survey of the agricultural geography of Al-Andalus in the late 12th century, at least in regard to its interior arable land and the valley of the Guadalquivir river.

These early Spanish and French translations of the Kitāb al-filāḥa are unsatisfactory according to Sarton in his Introduction to the History of Science (Sarton 1927-48, vol. 2, p. 44), an opinion which is shared by Leclerc in his Histoire de la medecine Arabe. (Leclerc 1876, vol. 2. p. 111). However, both the Spanish and French translations have recently been revised (?) and republished:

There is also a manuscript of a Turkish translation of the treatise by Ibn al-‘Awwām dated 1065 of the Hegira: it is nº 23 in the Library of Musée (Bursa), and is entitled Terceme i Kitāb al-falāha de Abū Zakarīya Yahyā b. Muhammad b. Ahmad al-‘Avām. It consists of 273 folios. Cf. Sezgin 1986, III, p. 529.